DPP wants more exchange monitoring

Former Democratic Progressive Party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen emerges from a meeting of the DPP China Affairs Committee in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

Cross-strait exchanges and agreements are welcome, but a stricter mechanism is needed to monitor them, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.

“The party will propose a cross-strait agreement supervision act in the Legislative Yuan and the establishment of a mechanism to prevent conflicts of interest between government officials and politicians involved in cross-strait negotiations,” Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦), spokesperson of the party’s China Affairs Committee, said at a press briefing.

All nine committee members, including DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), former chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), reached a consensus to submit the two recommendations in a closed-door meeting yesterday, Cheng said.

The meeting focused on the DPP’s cross-strait exchange strategy and how it could engage Beijing without giving up Taiwan’s identity.

Experience shows that the Legislative Yuan has been unable to monitor the negotiation and implementation of cross-strait agreements because current laws delegate too much power to the administrative branch and there is no legislation authorizing the Legislative Yuan to monitor those engagements, Cheng quoted committee members as saying.

As officials and politicians involved in bilateral exchanges are able to influence government policies, a mechanism should be established to make sure conflicts of interest are avoided, Cheng said.

“Otherwise, the welfare of Taiwanese could be sacrificed in exchange for personal gain,” he said.

The committee members also urged the DPP to pay closer attention — and offer assistance if possible — to the social and democratic movements in Hong Kong and China, the spokesperson said.